Taylor Hill competing in the 2014 Carifta Games in Martinique
FEBRUARY 3--Competing against two 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships 60m finalist in what turned out to be the fastest race in the world so far this season, sprinter Taylor Hill--two days shy of her 19th birthday--used a personal best to become the fourth British Virgin Islands female athlete to run under 7.60 seconds this season.
Hill, running in Houston, Tex. in the Howie Ryan Invitational and Multis, was sixth in the 60m final in 7.56 seconds, 0.01 behind Ashley Kelly's 7.55 from two weeks ago for the third fastest time by a BVI athlete over 60m this season. Karene King also ran 7.59. Hill advanced to the final after running 7.64.
Ivory Coast's Murielle Ahoure, a 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships 60m silver medalist and a 2013 IAAF World Outdoor Championships double silver medalist in the 100 and 200m, won the race in a world leading 7.08 seconds. Ahoure was followed by Trinidad and Tobago's Michelle Lee Ahye--also a 2014 World Indoor finalist--in 7.16.
Hill followed up with another personal best in the 200m when she stopped the clock at 25.21 seconds, lowering her indoor best from 25.89.
The weekend began with veteran Tahesia Harrigan-Scott kicking off her European tour with two stops in Germany. She began the tour with a sixth placed time of 7.30 seconds in the 60m final in Dusseldorf, after a 7.35 semi. On Saturday in Karlsruhe, she said she was 'caught sleeping in the blocks' when she ran 7.34 seconds in the prelims followed by 7.35 in the final to finish seventh. Her tour continues with one meet in Poland and two in France.
St. Augustine University sophomore Khari Herbert, won his 400m heat in the Hilton Garden Invitational in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and was second overall with a time of 49.25 seconds on Friday. He placed third in his 200m heat in 22.77, good for eight overall on Saturday morning. Herbert contributed a second leg carry to his team's 4x400m Relay that placed third in 3:15.82.
Also in North Carolina, Cary High School Sr. Lakeisha "Mimi" Warner qualified for the State 4A Indoor Championships after placing fourth in her 500m heat and fifth overall in 1:20.46.
In Jamaica, returning to the form she displayed as a 16 year old, Jonel Lacey was third in the 400m in 57.6 seconds then followed up with a 56.3 seconds carry on the 4x400m Relay.